The attacks on Hindus of Leicester, UK have taken a dangerous turn. This is clearly not a row over a cricket match, but part of a larger, well-coordinated plan to intimidate and harass the community.

A saffron flag was uprooted from the boundary wall of the Leicestershire Brahma Samaj Shivalaya temple on Saturday night right in front of a large British police posse which did nothing to prevent the vandalism.

Another video shows a saffron flag (probably the same that was uprooted from the temple) being set on fire.

In another incident, a car was intercepted by the Islamist mob and the driver brutally attacked. The car was later overturned. This reportedly happened near the Swaminarayan temple in Leicester.

More footage of the attack on the car driver can be seen – here, here.

Another video shows a bloodied young man being checked upon by a policeman while Islamists shower abuses and advance menacingly. It is not clear if this is the same victim as the car driver who was attacked, or a different one.

It has also been reported that some Muslim youth tried to barge in and vandalize/loot a Hindu-run restaurant “Street Taste” but were chased away by police. Even a British Muslim posted about the aggressive and nasty behavior of the Muslim youth who burnt the temple flag and tried to attack the restaurant. One social media post by a car owner says they were attacked by Muslims on Green Lane road after the latter saw a Sri Ganesh murti on the dashboard.

Islamists have apparently mobilized from across the UK, and especially from Birmingham, to carry out this attack on Leicester’s Hindus. The usual victimhood tactics and taqiya – spreading fake stories like attempted abduction of a Muslim schoolgirl and claiming a mosque was attacked (a variant of the ‘blasphemy’ allegation) – were deployed to incite Muslims and fuel anti-Hindu bigotry.

See this video where Islamists are saying “Here are the Hindus, provoking us…breaking the peace..cowards, cowards…just remember who is breaking the peace, they are breaking the peace. Scum”. When a police officer asks them to stay back, they abuse the officers too.

One of the major landmark events in Islam’s history is the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah between Muslims and polytheists of Mecca which is said to have been broken by the Meccans, after which Muhammad marched on Mecca and conquered the polytheists in 630 CE.

As per a Times of India report by journalist Naomi Canton –

“East Leicester saw some of its worst religious violence in years on Saturday night when huge mobs of South Asian-origin Muslims faced off against British-Indian Hindus. Missiles were thrown and police officers hit while police dogs had to be drafted in as police lines tried to prevent both sides fighting each other….large groups had gathered on Belgrave Road on Sunday night and a huge police operation was once again in place.

Locals told TOI that Saturday’s violence began when Muslims in Birmingham organised a “peaceful protest” in Leicester, for which a poster was created — which TOI has seen — mentioning a meeting point in Birmingham. The poster says: “We going to land in Lesta show these RSS Hindutva extremist not to mess with our Muslim and Sikh women, children and elderly.” Anger was apparently triggered by a fake social media post claiming three Hindu youths were trying to kidnap a young Muslim girl.

The poster triggered a huge march by Hindu youths down Belgrave Road. That spiralled into violence when the two sides met, causing huge numbers of police to be drafted in to keep the gangs — many in masks and balaclavas — apart.…The Mandir Dhvaja (temple flag) was pulled down from the Leicestershire Brahma Samaj Shivalaya. One video shows a car being smashed up and turned over. Another shows a man being beaten up at a vegetable stall. Police are seen breaking up various fights as the male youths carrying poles, rods, knives and huge pieces of wood, run down the street….According to locals, at least two people have been seriously injured.

…Madhu Shastri, chairman of trustees of the Leicestershire Brahma Samaj Shivalaya, has written to the chief constable of Leicestershire Police requesting that the person who tore the flag down be arrested. He said the temple may have to close until the tensions subside. Shastri also sought police protection for the temple. A statement by a group of Leicester Hindu and Jain temples said: “The collective leadership of all Hindu temples and community centres across Leicester is appalled to hear of the unfortunate events that took place. We must unite in peace and call out those from within the community who are acting to disturb the peace and harmony.”

Chain of events

This is the chain of events as HinduPost has managed to piece together – (you can also refer to this detailed coverage by Insight UK which shows that the protest march taken out by Hindus on Saturday, September 17 came after multiple night of shocking violence on Hindu homes):

1.) Hindus of Belgrave area of Leicester came out to celebrate Bharat’s win in the T20 match with Pakistan on August 28. Some anti-social element stomped on the Bharatiya tricolor. This provoked Hindus who raised ‘Pakistan Murdabad’ (i.e. ‘down with Pakistan) chants and a scuffle ensued.

2.) This incident was blown up as ‘Hindutva extremism’, ‘anti-Muslim chanting’ by likes of journalist Sunny Hundal, comedian Guz Khan and others. On August 31, Leicester Police sent an email to faith leaders wrongly stating there were chants “calling for (we believe) ‘death to Muslims’ in Hindi.” On September 1, police retracted its statement, now saying “find no verifiable evidence that there were any chants of “death to Muslims”. But the damage was already done by then and the fake narrative spread like wildfire, inciting Muslims to retaliate.

3.) On September 1, MP Claudia Webbe who represents the Leicester East constituency where the anti-Hindu violence has occurred (she is known for her anti-Bharat rhetoric), wrote a letter to the Police Chief Constable declaring her support for the Federation of Muslim Organisations and shared it on her social media. This further inflamed the already volatile environment.

4.) On September 4, another Bharat-Pakistan T20 match took place in the Asia Cup, with Pakistan emerging victorious this time. Islamists decided to ‘celebrate’ by unleashing a campaign of terror on Hindus living in Belgrave and some other areas of Leicester.

A Hindu family was celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi and people form the neighborhood had gathered for the evening aarti. The Islamist mob threw an egg on the Sri Ganesh murti through the open front door. When the family went out to protest, a Hindu boy was attacked with a long knife but he luckily escaped. His aunt who came out to aid him was punched on the nose.

5.) On the night of September 5, the Islamist mob again terrorized the same neighborhood. Amidst Islamic sloganeering and anti-Hindu/anti-kafir chanting, the mob reportedly stabbed one Hindu, smashed windows, cars and removed a saffron flag from the same house where eggs were thrown the previous day. Two men from Birmingham were arrested for this night’s violence.

6.) On September 6, despite increased police presence, Islamist mob numbering in the hundreds continued their nightly rampage. They smashed windows & cars wherever they saw Hindu symbols like Om, Sri Ganesh, Shubh Labh, and loudly knocked on doors while threatening residents – around 50 such incidents occurred. The mob tried to force their way into two houses by breaking the door, including one where a newly married young Hindu woman was at home alone.

7.) To instigate more anti-Hindu violence, a fake story was concocted on September 12 about an attempted abduction of a Muslim schoolgirl (one version said she had learning disabilities) by Hindu youth. Local media initially gave credence to this fake news, but it was debunked by police on September 14. Note: such fake stories of sexual assault on Muslim girls have been used during the 2020 anti-Hindu Delhi riots too. The truth is that Islamist sexual violence on Hindu women takes place on a staggering scale throughout the Bharatiya subcontinent, and the majority of the grooming gang members who preyed on vulnerable minor girls in UK’s cities like Rotherham too are of Pakistani descent.

7.) On September 15,  a 22-year-old Hindu man from Prospect Hill was assaulted while he was in his car. Then a group of Hindu youth on foot was approached by men in two cars who tried to engage in a confrontation, but the youth moved away.

During inter-community meetings, Muslim imams and representatives tried to pin the blame on Hindus, pointing fingers at some relatively new arrivals from Daman-Diu and ‘changing political scenario in India’, and aggressively demanding why “organge RSS” flags were put up on some houses.

8.) As a result of this continuous violence which left many Hindu houses and properties damaged, one man in hospital and others, including a woman, injured, the entire Hindu community in Leicester was terrorized. Many Hindus stopped sending children to school or stepping out of their house. They removed Om and ‘Shubh Labh’ stickers, and photos or murtis of deities from the front of their homes and cars, to prevent future targeted attacks.

9.) Islamists in other cities like Birmingham distributed inflammatory posters for a ‘peaceful protest’ on September 17 to “protect Muslim and Sikh elderly, women and children from RSS Hindutva extremists”.

10.) Fearing yet another round of violence, and exasperated with the false propaganda and police inability to arrest those who attacked them, a large group of Hindus in Leicester took out a protest march on Saturday, September 17. The march with standard Hindu/Bharatiya slogans like ‘Jai Sree Ram’, ‘Vande Mataram’ happened to pass through a Muslim-dominated area of Green Lane Road. Muslims took umbrage to the fact that this orderly & peaceful Hindu protest with accompanying police presence walked on a road in a ‘Muslim area’ and passed near a mosque. Many HINO (Hindu in Name Only) liberals have also claimed this was a ‘grave provocation’. Remember, the same tactic of taking offense to any Hindu socio-religious procession passing through a Muslim-dominated area has been used time and again to attack Hindus in Bharat as well.

11.) More fake news was concocted about a ‘mosque being attacked’, but UK Police debunked that claim too. This is another common tactic used by Islamists as part of their “Islam khatre mai hai” (Islam is in danger) playbook. In last year’s communal unrest in the Bharatiya state of Tripura too, which took place in the wake of Bangladesh’s anti-Hindu pogrom during Durga Puja, such fake reports of mosques being vandalized and burnt were circulated, whereas the truth was that several Hindu temples/shrines had been desecrated in the run up to that violence.

12.) Claiming that the peaceful Hindu protest march earlier that day was ‘incitement’, Islamists again started rioting on Saturday night and this is when the temple flag was desecrated and another car driver was attacked and his vehicle overturned. A large Islamist mob reportedly gathered on Sunday, September 18 too.

Islamist mobilization and UK establishment and media’s anti-Hindu bias

UK Police has consistently failed to provide adequate security to Hindus during these disturbances which purportedly started after the Bharat-Pakistan T20 match on August 28, but look deeper and you will lean towards the conclusion that this violence is the result of long-brewing anti-Hindu hate in the area and planned Islamist mobilization to “show piss-drinking mushriks their place”.

This is not the first time that police and authorities in UK have been found wanting when it came to tackling anti-Hindu hate crimes and hate speech. UK authorities have always turned a blind eye to violent protests around the Indian High Commission in London; but two back-to-back attacks by pro-Pakistan and pro-Khalistan hoodlums, first during Bharat’s independence day celebrations on August 15, 2019 and then another just weeks later, were especially egregious. To rub salt in wounds, UK claimed that these protests were ‘largely peaceful’. Anyway, the pro-Pakistan and anti-Bharat/anti-Hindu slant of UK’s government and intellectual circles has always been evident.

The original trigger for the Lecister violence was reported as “racist” ‘Pakistan Murdabad’ chanting by Hindus, conveniently burying the fact that a Bharatiya flag being trampled and allegation of eggs thrown on a Ganesh murti had provoked Hindus on August 28 while they were out celebrating Bharat’s victory in the T20 match. Moreover, anyone from the subcontinent can tell you that such ‘Murdabad/Zindabad’ chants are par for the course and not racist – they are commonly used to show support/displeasure, as the case may be.

Several clips – here, here – showing Islamists sitting in their cars, spewing the usual anti-Hindu slurs and abuses have also been shared on social media. Other posts show threats being issued with soundtrack of gunshots warning police to ‘take care of Hindutva BJP before we escalate’. Allah-u-Akbar chanting mobs could be seen even yesterday in Leicester. Islamists are planning further protests and asking Muslims of all backgrounds to come together for a “peaceful protests against Hindu attacking innocent Muslims”.

Read this story to understand how Islamic radicalism is now rife in British towns with large Muslim migrant population.

British local and national media is still subtly trying to pin the blame on Hindus or, at best, blaming both sides equally – see reports by left-liberal Guardian, BBC, or right-wing Daily Mail for example. Some conservative/RW Britons, while rightly calling out mainstream British media’s obfuscation of the violence, are also using it to push their racist anti-immigration and anti multi-culturalism agenda.

Sadly, as Hindu activists like Sarah Gates who are diligently tracking these events have pointed out, many members of the Hindu community in Leicester and Hindu organizations like Hindu Council UK have failed to respond effectively to the fake narrative and propaganda tsunami against Hindus.

Update

September 21, 10.30 AM: Shocking new details have emerged of the anti-Hindu violence perpetrated by British Islamists, mostly of Pakistani origin. Activist group Insight UK has put together the entire timeline which shows a series of attacks on Hindus of Leicester over a 3-week period. The HinduPost article has been updated based on these fresh inputs.